Smaller on the Inside

Anyone who has known me more than a few minutes knows that I'm a proud, self-proclaimed nerd, and any nerd worth their weight in ewoks knows that now (more than ever) it's a great time to be a nerd. I've been a Star Wars guy since my geeky little eyes first focused on a light saber, and the X-Men come second only to Batman in my superhero heart. One thing that managed to elude me (along with most of Star Trek until the oh-so-controversial latest movie franchise) was Doctor Who. It's one of those names that I have heard talk of for as long as I can remember, and remarkably more often in the past few years. So, after last March's C2E2, after meeting maybe twelve people in any array of Whovian costumes, I decided to give it a shot. I was not disappointed.

And then... I got an email from a woman named Bridger through my etsy shop, asking if I could make a set of select doctors, the largest nesting doll painted like the Tardis. My first thought, which I pretty much insisted on, was to make a box for the Tardis, as I had seen it done on a nesting doll and wasn't that into it. She liked the idea, and that free'd up the little doll to make room for a Dalek! Which is just awesome... In my humblest opining.

So, if you didn't know, these are the doctors, from smallest up, the First Doctor (William Hartnell), the third Doctor (John Pertwee), the fourth (and fan favorite as far as I have learnt) (Tom Baker), the fifth (Peter Davison), and she then skipped a few to my most familiar Doctor, the Tenth (David Tennant). They were fun to research, watching old episodes out of order on YouTube to sketch costumes, and just as fun to paint.

Evil... Tiny, tiny evil.

My friend and Doctor Who sponsor (he was so patient while I resisted the call of the nerd for two years or so) Josh signed off on likenesses, and helped me catch details that I may have over-looked left to my own devices.

Details, for instance, like the celery stalk on the lapel..

...Or how much more amazing the Fourth Doctor would be with his helpful companion, K-9 along for the adventure.

 

I was sorely tempted to paint the first Doctor in black-and-white, but I didn't want to have a stylistic break in the set, so I settled for a muted photo.

 

That's it! Here they are all nested up and ready to ship (almost). I didn't get a photo of it, but the inside of the Tardis, as tempting as it was to do something REDICULOUS, like a pop-up-style expanding interior (truly bigger) or mirrors (apparently bigger), I went with sparkly black felt to protect the passengers and give a cheap illusion of space. The recipient of this very nerdy and generous gift was reported to be blown away, which is exactly the reaction I was hoping for!

Thanks for reading, and have a happy new year! Time to go watch some Doctor Who!